Jacques O’Neill has admitted he still has feelings for his ex Paige Thorne following her split from Adam Collard.
The Love Island star, who sensationally quit the villa earlier this year, revealed he will always care about Paige, who he met on the ITV show.
In emotional scenes, viewers watched as Jacques told Paige he was leaving Love Island hours after Adam arrived.
The rugby player explained he had been ‘struggling’ on the show and couldn’t watch Paige get to know Adam after he firmly set his sights on her.
He also told Paige she ‘deserved better’ than what he could give her at the time.
Paige and Adam ended up getting together, but just missed out on a place in the Love Island final.
Outside the villa their relationship lasted a couple of months before they announced their split in October after Adam was seen hugging a mystery woman in a McDonald's.
Paige has since deleted all trace of him from her social media accounts and opened up about her split from the hunk.
Speaking to OK! magazine, Paige’s ex Jacques claimed she had been “done over badly”.
The 23-year-old said he had ‘no bad blood’ towards her and revealed their friendship was now back on track.
He said: “Whenever I see Paige, I’m going to speak to the girl. I’ve got nothing against her. She’s a lovely girl and I’m always going to care for her. It’s as simple as that.
“Once you have feelings for someone it doesn’t just go, you’re always going to care for them, so that’s how I see Paige right now.”
The reality star, who also dated Michael Owen’s daughter Gemma before going on Love Island, insisted him and Paige are just friends for now.
But he said he was ‘looking out for her’ after what happened with Adam and was there for her if she needed him.
Without naming her most recent ex Adam, Jacques continued: “She’s been done over badly by you know someone. So I’m going to have her back when she’s been treated badly by a bloke like that.”
Paige and Adam split after a clip of him getting close to a mystery blonde went viral.
Opening up about his alleged infidelity on the Saving Grace podcast, Paige suggested there was more the public didn’t know about.
She shared: “There are other videos that people don’t know about of different people, on the same night, in different locations.
“At first, I was like, nah do you know what? It’s just an arm. I get that people get flirty. There’s nothing to it. If I’m in the club and a guy puts his arm around me, is it cheating? No.“
Paige added: “And then these other videos came out and I’m just like, ooh. Ooh, I can’t justify this.“
Speaking about ‘reconnecting’ with Jacques, Paige went on to say he had ‘done her over’ too so she wouldn’t be rushing back there in a hurry.
“I am in zero rush to be with a man because men are trash,” she added.
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@trinitymirror.com or call us direct 0207 29 33033
